Up to 1,068 new homes could be coming to Quacco Road now that a rezoning request has received approval.

The Chatham County-Savannah Metropolitan Planning Commission on Tuesday unanimously approved rezoning 89 acres on Quacco from a residential agriculture classification to a planned unit development multifamily residential classification. The rezoning allows for 12 residential units per acre on the property.

The petition was filed by the owner, Roy Patel of Quacco Land Investments LLC. He did not return calls seeking comment.

The property is located on the south side of Quacco Road about one mile east of Interstate 95.

An MPC staff report found the rezoning is not consistent with Chatham County's Future Land Use Plan, but would not be detrimental to the existing developments along Quacco Road. The report recommended approving the rezoning and changing the Land Use Plan to reflect the new zoning designation.

The residential agriculture zoning classification was dated and will probably be amended by The Chatham County-Savannah Tricentennial Plan, which is being developed, said Gary Plumbley, MPC development services planner.

"(Residential agriculture) was an old classification used primarily in rural areas," Plumbley said. "It is still in place even though there is not much agriculture going on."

No plans have been made, but Plumbley said eventually there will be some widening required on Quacco Road because of the development.

"We want to make sure, when the time comes, this development is not built so close to the right-of-way that it would require additional land in the future to widen it," Plumbley said.

The MPC also approved rezoning property at 1180 Bradley Blvd. from a planned unit development multifamily classification to a single-family classification for a 271-unit development. The 60-acre development east of Bradley Boulevard and south of U.S. 17 was approved by the MPC in 2005, said James Hansen, MPC director of development services.

The change allows the petitioner, The Villages at Vallambrosa LLC., to build single detached structures instead of attached townhomes.

"When (the developer) went to pull permits they were told what they wanted to do couldn't be done because their definition of attached and the zoning definition were two different things," Hansen said. "(The townhomes) were only going to attach at the rear. Attached is really a common wall the length of the structure."

By that time, significant investment had been sunk into the infrastructure, Hansen said.

"Either (the developer) could re-engineer the entire project or he could seek rezoning," Hansen said, adding that no significant changes will result from the change. "It's the same plan."